Custom Personal Background Page
- 06 Oct 2025
- 3 minute read
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Custom Personal Background Page
- Updated 06 Oct 2025
- 3 minute read
- Print
- DarkLight
- PDF
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📚 Part of the series Application Building Phase II: The Slate-hosted Application
In the default Slate-Hosted Application, the personal background page (identified by the part ID per) consists of a pre-made module that allows students to enter their name, addresses, contact information, and biographical details.
This article covers the creation of a custom personal background page in the Slate-Hosted Application using a Slate-Hosted Application Page-scoped form.
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✅ Four steps to creating a custom personal background page:
Create a Slate-hosted-application-page-scoped form.
Create a widget-scoped form for the address widget.
Add the address widget to the Slate-hosted-application-page-scoped form.
Add the Slate-hosted-application-page-scoped form to a Slate application.
📝 Note: The Address WidgetAddress data collected with an address block on a custom personal background page will not be properly validated. Instead, use the address widget. An explanation is included in this article.
Step 1: Create the Slate-hosted application page
In addition to hosting the address widget, this form will include the rest of the personal background form fields applicants will complete.
Use Suitcase to import our ready-made example personal background page form. Open and re-save each form field to break caching from the suitcase import.
547028c0-5602-4dfc-a916-3aaeac21442a:slate-examplesTo create the Slate-hosted application page:
Select Forms from the main navigation.
Select New Form. A popup appears.
In the New Form popup, configure the following:
Page Title: The page title will display to an applicant as the name of the page.
Folder: Keep organized by saving application pages within a clear folder structure.
Status: Set the status to Confirmed/Active.
Select Save.
Select Edit Form on the right side.
Select Edit Properties. A popup appears.
In the Edit Properties popup, configure the following:
General Settings:
Scope: Select Slate-Hosted Application Page.
Merge Fields:
Add any desired exports that should pulled into the form. See example opposite.
Select Save.
Create the form fields required to collect all the personal information required from your applicants. See Suitcase example above.
Step 2: Create the address widget
Use Suitcase to import our ready-made example Address Widget form.
Custom list fields do not persist through Suitcase imports. The space where addresses entered by the applicant normally appear will be blank if you do not add your own custom list fields to the widget. See examples in the section below.
Be sure to open and re-save each form field to break any potential cache from the suitcase import.
547028c0-5602-4dfc-a916-3aaeac21442a:slate-examplesTo create the address widget:
Select Forms from the main navigation.
Select New Form. A popup appears.
In the New Form popup, enter the following:
Page Title: Give the form a descriptive title.
Status: Set the status to Confirmed/Active.
Folder: Add the form to an existing folder, or select Other to create a new one.
Select Save.
Select Edit Form on the right side.
Select Edit Properties. A popup appears.
In the Edit Properties popup, configure the following:
Scope: Set the form's scope to Address Widget, within the section Page Construction Widgets.
Custom List Fields: Add exports, filters and sorts as needed to present the applicant's submitted information on the application page.
For example, you could create a Location subquery export:
The example Location subquery export, expanded:
Select Save.
Configure the widget with the form fields applicants should complete. See the setup from the Suitcase example above.
🔔 Important!Map all fields in the widget to system fields of the same scope. Any custom fields created to be used in the widget should match the scope of the widget.
Step 3: Adding the address widget to the host form
From the form builder palette, drag in a Widget Table.
Edit the widget table. From the Widget Form list, select the widget form created in the previous section.
Select Save.
Add any additional fields or instructions to the form.
Step 4: Adding the host form to a Slate application
Select Database from the main navigation, then select Application Editor.
Select the /apply/ link for the application base to which the new page should be added.
NOTE: If only one application base exists, only /apply/ will appear.
Select Edit Menu in the upper-right.
Select Add Link. Enter the following configurations:
Type: Select Custom Form Page.
Subtype: Select the Slate-Hosted-Application-Page-scoped form you created.
Label: Enter the name to display as the page link in the application navigation.
Select Save. The new form appears at the bottom of the application menu.
Drag this page to where it belongs in the application page order.
The application form widget is now active in the application. Be sure to test that data entered into the widget is saving back to the appropriate table on the Profile tab of the Person record.
⭐ Best Practice: Auto-PDFApplication form widgets, and by extension the custom application pages that use them, lack some compatibility with the Slate Auto PDF feature, which converts application data into automatically generated PDFs. When Slate converts the application data, the questions asked in a form page appear, but submitted widget information will not. To get the most out of your Slate-hosted application, we suggest migrating your reading process from Auto PDF to a custom portal dashboard that supports all new widget functionality.
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